Paula Turner

When did you begin playing your instrument?Both my sister and I played bassoon in high school

How long have you been in the New Horizons band?About six or seven years.

How did you hear about this band?My daughter worked at a music store in Rome, Georgia. The Roswell New Horizons jazz band went to the music store to play and introduce the New Horizons concept. My daughter called me immediately to tell me about it.

Do you belong to any other musical ensembles?Last year I lived in Las Cruces, New Mexico, and I played in the NHB there. I also belong to the Sandy Springs New Horizons band.

Do you play any other instruments?I learned to play clarinet in junior high and I play piano. I know how to play a little mandolin, violin and guitar, but I’m better at woodwinds.

Do you take lessons?Last year, I took lessons with the bassoon professor at New Mexico State University, and I will go to bassoon camp for 10 days in May.

Tell us a little about yourself.
I began playing clarinet in the 5th grade in Wichita, Kansas. When I was in the 7th grade one day the band director handed me (and my sister) each a bassoon and a fingering chart. That was my introduction to the bassoon. I never had any lessons. I played in the Wichita Youth Symphony a few years later. After high school I had to return the bassoon to the school and that was the end of my music career.
In 2006, the band’s Jazz Band played a concert at the music store in Rome, Georgia where my daughter worked. It was an introduction to the New Horizons concept. She called me that night so excited and told me I had to go join this band and so I did. I started with the clarinet but soon decided to play the bassoon like I did in high school.
I was born in McAlester, Oklahoma and moved to Muskogee, Oklahoma at age 4. When I was in the 5th grade we moved to Wichita, Kansas. After marrying, I moved to Gunnison, Colorado and after a few years there we moved to Atlanta, Georgia where my parents were from. They had moved back to Atlanta and I wanted to move near them. I have four children of my own, three step-sons and 11 grandchildren.
When my children started college I decided to go with them to study accounting. I became a CPA and worked in an accounting firm as a consultant specializing in law firms. I eventually expanded my client base to law firms in Latin America and the Caribbean and worked in Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Panama for many years.
Music is my hobby.

What is or was your line of work?I’m a CPA. Don and I advise lawyers and law firms on how to spend their money on technology, and I help manage technology projects. Right now, I’m pretty much retired.

Do you have family? (spouse, children, grandchildren, pets, etc.)I have four children – three daughters and one son. I also reared three stepsons. Plus, I have eleven grandchildren and one great-granddaughter who is six. Of course, I can’t forget about my dog, Phoebe. She’s a Bichon Frise.

What are your hobbies?Studying Spanish and bassoon. I don’t have much time for anything else right now.

Please share a memorable experience, an embarrassing or funny moment in your life, or an unusual fact about yourself.When I was 13, I went water skiing with a boat full of boys. They taught me how to water ski, but neglected to tell me to let go of the rope if I fell. When I did fall, the force of the water ripped off my bathing suit, and as they came to rescue me, all I could say was “No, just let me drown.” Fortunately, I found my suit and got back into it, so everything turned out alright.

What are some items on your “bucket list?”I want to learn to play the bassoon well. I plan to study music and the bassoon after I finish my master’s degree. I also would like to seek my PhD in Spanish at UNAM (National Autonomous University of Mexico.)

Posted by Don Holland on Tuesday, July 30, 2013 at 12:34 pm Filed under · Tagged with

Norm Boldin Norm started playing music at 11 in the 6th grade. A year later he began playing clarinet in his high schools marching and concert bands. In his junior year of high school he began playing alto sax in the high schools new “dance band” and played swing dance music as he does now […]

I never played an instrument until April 1998. In April 1998 I took my first instrument lesson on the tenor sax. I loved it! After about 5 months of lessons my instructor suggested I join an adult band that had just been formed, the Roswell New Horizons Band, at that time rehearsing at the Hembree […]

I began playing clarinet in the 5th grade in Wichita, Kansas. When I was in the 7th grade one day the band director handed me (and my sister) each a bassoon and a fingering chart. That was my introduction to the bassoon. I never had any lessons. I played in the Wichita Youth Symphony a few years later. After high school I had to return the bassoon to the school and that was the end of my music career until I joined the RNHB.

My grandfather was a violinist and my father was a drummer. He helped develop my interest in Dixieland jazz. When I was in college, I played one weekend with Count Basie and Duke Ellington. Music must be in my genes, and I give it everything I have. That’s why I’m so happy. Two of my grandsons have inherited my musical genes. One plays sax and the other plays bass.

Within the last year I joined East Cobb New Horizons Band and also the Sandy Springs New Horizons Band. I’m also in another group, the Cobb Wind Symphony. I play euphonium there. When I started in this band (RNHB),

I was born in New York City and lived there until I was four years old. Then we moved to Great Neck, Long Island and lived in a Catholic actors’ community. My folks were in vaudeville, so I had an entertainment background and I met a lot of show business people.

I formerly played with the Callanwolde Concert Band and the Atlanta Wind Symphony. Currently, I play with the Alpharetta City Band, the Jazz, Concert Band and Brass Quintet with RNHB. My wife would kill me if I was involved in anything more!